In 2010, my two Harvard mathematician colleagues and I dismantled kin-selection theory, which was the reigning theory of the origin of altruism at the time.
E. O. WILSONOf course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin of the human mind.
More E. O. Wilson Quotes
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It’s always been a great survival value for people to believe they belong to a superior tribe. That’s just in human relationships.
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Willing to try to get a better atmosphere through a demonstration of democratic principles, fairness and cooperation, a better product, those will win in the end.
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Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.
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Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it’s a map with constant immediate sensory input.
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The two major challenges for the 21st century are to improve the economic situation of the majority and save as much of the planet as we can.
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Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.
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When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.
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The world depends on fungi, because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world.
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Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we’re hard-wired to form tribalistic religions.
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Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.
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We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.
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Companies that are willing to share, to withhold in order to further the growth of the company.
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True character arises from a deeper well than religion.
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Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.
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We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It’s about conflicts between creation stories.
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